"If you want to come back to UFC this isn't the way to do it" - Joe Rogan's quote during the broadcast of this UFC 79 preliminary fight pretty much sums it up for both fighters' horribly uninspired performances.

When an extremely boring and painful fight it was to watch! Both Dean Lister and Jordan Radev should not be invited back for a long time.

Lister is GOOD on the ground (just watch some ADCC Submission Championships for proof), but he severely is still lacking in two other very important aspects of his MMA in order to even take advantage of his best skill. He's been fighting professionally since 2000 with some decent success in King of the Cage promotion and finishing up his stint there with a very close competitive loss to a UFC/Pride veteran Jeremy Horn. Around 2004 he was invited to Pride Bushido and started the step up in the competition level with one of the worst fights in history of MMA against Amar Suloev. He fought a striker with good takedown defense and neither Lister nor Suloev wanted to engage much. Suloev won on a very few landed punches. Take my word for it, it was horrible. Lister followed that fight with a triangle choke win against always tough Akira Shoji, who engaged Lister on the ground at his own peril, and a surprisingly competitive loss with a tough light heavyweight contender Ricardo Arona. Despite the decision loss, it was Lister's best fight yet and it was also what got him into UFC.

Lister's UFC career started off with quick triangle choke win (due to a nice rubber guard play) against an inexperienced on the ground Allessio Sakara. He then decisioned a veteran Japanese fighter Yuki Sasaki. Another step up in the level of competition against, a contender at 185, Nathan Marquart didn't go so well for Lister. His virtually non-existent takedowns and sloppy awkward stand up were to blame.

Everyone knows about Lister's excellent ground game, top or bottom, so fighters do not want to engage him there. Unfortunately for the UFC and the fans, he really cannot get there even if he wants to, because he doesn't have the tools. What's also unfortunate is that since 2004 when these glaring weaknesses were so glaring to the world, he still hasn't managed to improve on them. He wouldn't even have to improve both. Pick just one! Takedowns or standup. Which one Dean? How many more failed attempts of a telegraphed a mile away half ass shot to trying to have the sprawling fighter fall in to you guard will it take for Lister to learn to have good takedowns? Why's wrestling one of the most dominant aspects of MMA? Because fighters with good wrestling can dictate where the fight will take place. Does Dean Lister not get that? 

Why am I bothering writing about this boring fight between Lister and Radev? Because it's painful to see a fighter with a gift not willing to learn a way to showcase it. May be a ticket to minor leagues will wake Lister up?  Also, just like in the last HDNet fights event, fighters should be penalized for butt flopping, who does that in this day and age? UFC should take notice.

Jordan Radev, on the other hand, what in the world was his game plan coming in to this fight? His standup was just as sloppy and bad as Lister's. Why didn't he use his wrestling to score points at least? After forcing myself through watching this fight I don't care to see him fight anywhere. How did he get into UFC anyways?

Wow, so UFC 79 was one of the better events for UFC in 2007. UFC 79 had lots of great hype, several high profile match ups and the fights that mattered definitely delivered. In my last post I quickly made the picks, let's see how I did.

Georges St. Pierre vs Matt Hughes - St. Pierre by Armbar (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 1-0) I picked St. Pierre to win, because he was already in shape, was actually hoping for a match and him getting refocused on training and having fun doing it. I thought he would decisively beat Hughes, however, I did not expect him to completely steam roll through Hughes like he did tonight. It was amazing to watch! Even when Hughes had two chances for takedowns, St. Pierre still got out and to add insult to the injury threw Hughes with a high amplitude throw before finishing with an armbar from a kimura attempt. If Matt Serra was afraid to fight with Matt Hughes, he must be absolutely terrified of having to face him now. Matt Serra should retire and let St. Pierre fight Jon Fitch (the only serious contender at this point at 170)

Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva - Liddell By Decision (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 1-1) I like both Liddell and Silva, but for this fight I liked Silva better. I really thought Silva did good by keeping his cool and inched forward or let Liddell come to him. It quickly became apparent how much longer Liddell's arms were, he had a clear advantage. Silva would have landed many more punches than he did, IF  he could actually reach with them. He had his moments too when he knocked chuck down with a punch, but didn't follow up. He could have gotten on top and take round 2. Chuck was landing lots of straight punches and was generally on for this fight. Is he next in line for Rampage vs Griffin winner?

Eddie Sanchez vs Palelei - Sanchez by TKO (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 1-2) Having never seen Palelei I picked him solely base on his size and the fact that he looked to be in better shape than Sanchez. He also had 10 inch reach which he did zero with. Sanchez beat him up good though, landed some sweet uppercuts to bring down the bit outta shape loof.

Lyoto Machida vs Thierry Sokoudjou - Machida by arm-triangle choke  (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 1-3) Sokoudjou's people must have listened to the people from all the mma forums and bloggers who encouraged Keith Jardine to come out to the "techno viking" music for his next fight. Well, Sokoudjou came out as a Predator because of this picture. How smart was that? Too bad he fought Machida who threw Sokoudjou off, like every one else he fights, and picked him apart till he knocked him down and choked him with arm-triangle choke.  Unfortunately for Machida with Chuck winning, his chances of a title shot are very distant now, probably at least a year. Should he fight Jardine?

Rich Clementi vs Melvin Guillard - Clementi by rear naked choke (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 2-3) Gotta say that these two guys really created some great tension right before the fight. Clementi got through a few dangerous moments of Guillard's striking and over matched Guillard on the ground to sink in body triangle and rear naked choke for submission. He took the fight more personal than any other and really showcased his persona by telling Guillard to "get the hell outta" UFC. He just guaranteed himself several more fights just for mocking Guillard after beating him.

Manvel Gamburyan vs Nate Mohr - Gamburyan by ankle lock (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 3-3) I was pretty much what I thought it was going to be like. Gamburyan took Mohr down, did a bit of ground and pound, then finished with a straight ankle lock. Though I think it was from Mohr hurting his own knee by trying to push his upper body on top while his leg was stuck with Gamburyan. Either way I doubt it would affect the outcome.

James Irvin vs Luis Artur Cane - Irvin by DQ Not going to count this fight as a wrong pick yet. Picked Cane and Irvin getting kneed in the head to win....I'll have to watch the fight first.

Dean Lister vs Jordan Radev - Lister by decision (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 4-3) Will have to see the fight to comment, but I suspected Lister would take it.

Roan Carneiro vs Tony DeSouza - Carneiro by TKO (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 4-4) Wrong pick.

Mark Bocek vs Doug Evans Bocek by Decision (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 4-5) Another wrong guess.

So I didn't have the best night as a far as picking the fights for UFC 79. I picked only 4 outcomes right out of 9 fights. One excuse I'm going to put forth is that I haven't seen some of the fighters before. I'll comment on the undercard fights after I'll watch them.

UFC 79 was a great event to finish up the year. Few things to take away from the event:

• 155 division is one of the most exciting divisions and it stacked with exciting fighters. Clementi is a great part of the mix
• Lyoto Machida is definitely close to title shot picture with shutting down the hyped up Sokoudjou. Chuck and his age will get any chance at the title first though.
• Chuck Liddell was getting the better of Wanderlei Silva. Both are still top fighters. The fans won tonight as the fight lived up to it's hype.
• Yet another pair of former Pride fighters', Wanderlei and Sokoudjou, first fights in UFC were losses. It's a definite trend now. Hope they both rebound.
• St. Pierre is an amazing fighter with not too many fighters left to challenge him. Matt Serra's fight will be a waste of time for him, should fight Jon Fitch.
• Matt Hughes should definitely stick around for a few more fights. He should still fight Matt Serra to settle the score. Then he concentrate on writing more of his books.